Cancer, courage & a cause LEAH'S TIME TO TALK

In an exhausting year that saw her clashing with bitter, lockdown-weary callers, the veteran radio host was also battling a health crisis at home

- Fleur Guthrie

Taking inventory of the year that was, seasoned broadcaster Leah Panapa sums up her 2021 in one word: “brutal”.

Deftly navigating three different radio slots – and dealing with the public backlash of replacing other announcers – all in the space of nine months, off-air the vivacious talkback host was also privately supporting husband Mike Nesbitt after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The encouraging news was that it had been caught early after Mike’s doctor encouraged him to start taking prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests in his late 40s. PSA is a protein produced by both cancerous and non-cancerous tissue in the prostate, a small gland that sits below the bladder in males.

“I wasn’t particularly keen on getting the traditional prostate check done,” smiles Welsh-born Mike, who jokingly gesticulates putting on a latex glove.

“But I learned that you don’t have to have that invasive check with a PSA test, which has ended up saving my life. My doctor took one reading a few years ago and that was the base level. Then 18 months ago, after another PSA test, it shot up, signalling something was wrong.”

After a biopsy, the couple went to North Shore Hospital in February to get the results. They were told Mike had stage-one cancer, but the tumour itself was “quite big” and would need surgery.